Generally, field service providers (e.g., a field service technician) are persons employed to provide a service at a destination facility. The field service provider is typically employed by a service providing company, but may also be a contractor or an internal employee of the facility operator. On any given day, a field service provider may visit multiple destination facilities while providing various different services at each destination facility.
Regardless of the type of service to be provided and the destination facility to where a service is to be provided, it is generally helpful for the field service provider to receive information about the required or requested service prior to arrival at the destination facility. Currently, such advisory information is typically provided to the field service provider through interaction with another person, such as by telephone. Additionally, advisory information may be provided as the field service provider references a hard copy manual or printout.
Although these conventional methods have been used for many years, they are not without disadvantages. First, by interacting with another person, the advisory information provided to the field service provider is subject to human error. Furthermore, the cost of employing two employees—one a field service provider and the other providing advisory information to the field service provider—to provide a single service is a financial burden to the service providing company of which the persons are employed. Second, by referencing a hard copy manual or printout, the advisory information provided to the field service provider may not include the most recent information needed to satisfactorily provide the service.
More importantly, it is somewhat difficult and extremely dangerous for the field service provider to reference the hard copy manual or printout while in transit to a destination facility. Transit time is generally referred to as “windshield time” due to the fact that most field service providers spend that time traveling in a vehicle. Windshield time is typically time that cannot be charged to the customer by the service providing company. Likewise, time taken to reference a hard copy manual or printout is typically time that cannot be charged to the customer. If the field service provider attempts to reference the hard copy materials during windshield time, he/she is endangering not only his/her life, but also the life of others on the transportation routes. As such, to safely reference the hard copy during transit would require the field service provider to detour from the transportation route thereby resulting in even greater delays than the normal windshield time.